Participation in risky behaviors is a common threat to an adolescent's health. Youth engagement (YE), a youth's meaningful and sustained participation in an activity, is a way to help reduce that threat. The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), a public health emergency preparedness and response organization, has opportunities for engaging youth. However, few adolescents participate in MRC activities, signaling network-wide variations in working with youth. Furthermore, there is a gap in the literature exploring YE in emergency preparedness organizations, including the MRC. The purpose of this dissertation was to better understand youth engagement and development within organizations like these. With the MRC as the example and youth development theories as the lens, YE was examined as well as challenges and benefits of YE, needs, and use of YE strategies within the MRC. An exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach was used to assess YE in the MRC: Phase I- key informant interviews of youth (ages 14-18) and adults in and out of MRC (N=17); and Phase II- a nationwide web-based survey of adult MRC unit leaders (N=215). Qualitative data was analyzed with Microsoft Word and Excel; quantitative data analyzed with Stata 12.0. Results revealed common challenges experienced by MRC units working with youth, including liability concerns. Benefits found include preparation of the youth for future careers and giving youth a focus beyond themselves. A Spearman's correlation found a statistically significant association (r=0.30, N=52, p=0.0288) between the use of the core YE principles and the level of youth participation among the MRC units with youth membership, meaning use of these principles may be helpful in better involving youth. Furthermore, "Building Youth and Adult Capacity" was the top YE principle used among the MRC units that allow youth membership to engage youth. Despite noted challenges, engaging adolescents in the MRC still has many benefits with long-term public health and maternal and child implications for youth in emergency preparedness organizations. These include development of a responsible youth that protects their peers, families, and local communities from public health challenges, positively impacting the community. Recommendations for building student MRC programs across the nation have been provided.

Epidemiological research indicates that parents report lower levels of youths’ exposure to violence than youth self-report, and theory suggests that such discrepancies reflect parents’ lack of knowledge of youth victimization and impaired ability to help children cope with victimization. This study extends prior research examining the implications of parent-youth informant discrepancies on ratings of victimization. Latent class analysis (LCA) was employed to identify groups of dyads distinguished by patterns of parent and youth report of victimization, uncovering heterogeneity based on patterns of parent-youth ratings of victimization. Analyses examined how latent classes reflecting parent-youth agreement on victimization were related to adjustment (i.e., depression, aggression, and delinquency) concurrently and over time. Participants were youths ages 10-15 years and their mothers (N=1,339 dyads) from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN). Parent and youth reports of six victimization events were used as the observed indicators in latent class analysis. Youths and parents completed parallel measures of adjustment (anxiety/depression and delinquency subscales of the Child Behavior Checklist and Youth Self Report) concurrently and at follow-up assessment (~2.5 years). This study compared three classes of youths: (a) Low Victimization (77.0%), (b) Youth > Parent (13.5%), and (c) Parent > Youth (8.1%). Concurrently, the class in which youths reported more victimization than parents (Youth > Parent) demonstrated higher levels of youth-reported depression, delinquency, and aggression. Longitudinally, however, this was not the case. In fact, the Parent >Youth class was more likely to show increased maladjustment, relative to the Youth > Parent class. Specifically, these youths showed increases in both youth- and parent- reported delinquent behavior, as well as parent-report of youth anxious/depressed behavior. In the absence of a gold standard to determine which informant is over- or under- reporting victimization, a person-centered approach can offer a unique framework for integrating informant reports. Moreover, discrepant perspectives can offer useful information for understanding the effects of victimization, as well as implications for prevention and intervention.

Twenty-five adolescents' ranking of a set of equally highly valued goals on a Paired-comparisons Survey was compared with what adolescents say they are doing to achieve those goals. Results of the Paired-comparisons Survey showed that adolescents ranked career, interpersonal, and educational goals rather high and reputation and self-presentation goals rather low. Results analyzed with a contingency coefficient and biserial correlation indicated that not all number one ranked goals had the same value for a particular adolescent, and that number one ranked goals were correlated with verbal reports of concrete actions directed at achieving those goals.

Grade retention is an educational practice that requires students to repeat the grade level they have just completed (Jimerson, 2001). In the United States, an estimated 15% to 19% of students are retained each year (Holmes, 2006). Previous research on grade retention is comprised of quantitative studies describing students who have been retained as having higher suspension rates, coming from a low socio-economic status, and having an increased chance of dropping out of school (Christle, Jolivette, & Nelson, 2007; Janosz, et al., 1997; Jimerson & Ferguson, 2007; Jimerson et al., 2002; Suh & Suh 2007). While these studies provide a wealth of information about grade retention, they do not describe how adolescents reacted when they were retained and how they experienced retention in their lives. In this qualitative study, eight students and one of their parents were interviewed about their experiences and reactions with retention. The dominant themes identified from student and parent interviews suggest that adolescent students and their parents believed that adolescent students reacted negatively to retention, experienced changes in their lives, experienced a loss of self-esteem, felt left behind by peers, felt older than peers, felt that retention added another year of school to their education, and that adolescent students’ school performance improved following retention. Implications for school counselors are provided.

This research study examined the course and effects of romantic relationships on the psychology and development of adolescents between the age of 15 and 18. Because existing literature demonstrates a high level of developmental significance to the relationships between adolescents and platonic peers, the introduction of the romantic element to teens’ social lives carries additional importance to their maturation process. There are also certain individuals and relationships that have greater likelihood of resulting in negative outcomes such as dating abuse and depression. Of eight participants, four were male and four were female, and all participants were currently 18-19 years of age and asked to reflect on relationship experiences they had between the ages of 15 and 18. The results did support the hypothesis of certain traits indicating higher likelihood of negative outcomes. Though the study lacked the empirical data to draw definitive conclusions, the trends found may provide insight into capability for greater understanding of the developmental significance of adolescent dating, thereby potentially leading to the development of more effective interventions by educators for individuals who need them.

The exodus of young people from traditional churches is well established and this project is a handbook to guide more meaningful engagement with young adolescents. Based in ministry experience and research, the handbook addresses parents, religious educators, youth ministers, and pastors who seek to enhance young adolescents’ faith formation. By affirming and encouraging them through this time of changing bodies, minds, and emotions, early adolescent faith formation can introduce Catholic Christian beliefs and values in a context that matters to the youth: their own struggle to become the persons God created them to be. The handbook makes practical suggestions for effective ways to build inter generational relationships.

Thesis advisor: Jacqueline V. Lerner / This dissertation considered character development in adolescence from a relational developmental systems (RDS) perspective through the estimation of trajectories of five character attributes and the associations of these trajectories with the contextual factors of intentional self-regulation (ISR) and prosocial socialization from role models whom adolescents reported knowing personally. Character attributes considered were honesty, humility, diligence, future mindedness, and purpose. Data were taken from the Connecting Adolescents' Beliefs and Behaviors longitudinal study of character development in adolescents from the Northeastern United States. Results demonstrated that multiple trajectories can be estimated for each character attribute, supporting the RDS principles of plasticity and individual differences. Associations were also found among all character attributes considered at every time point. Contextual factors had more nuanced relationships with character attribute trajectories than was expected, with high levels of ISR associated with high start points for all character attributes and for overall character attribute patterns, but not necessarily with sustained high levels of character attributes. Prosocial socialization did not demonstrate a stable association with high levels or increasing levels of any character attribute examined. This pattern of findings suggests that additional contextual aspects should be considered as important aspects of character development. Limitations and future directions are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

Officials in the juvenile and public education systems are working to address the education gap for incarcerated juveniles and to implement turning point programs. The purpose of the phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of previously incarcerated young adults and their perceptions of graduation success and long-term juvenile incarceration. Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory, Ryan and Deci's self-determination theory, Merton and Agnew's general strain theory, Homan's theory of exchange, and life course theory informed this study. Research questions were developed to understand the experiences and perceptions of young adults related to graduation success during or after juvenile incarceration. Convenience, purposive, and snowball sampling techniques were used to identify 10 young adults who experienced juvenile incarceration and completed high school with a high school diploma or GED. In-depth interviews were conducted to understand the participants' lived experiences and how they were able to overcome their challenges and succeed academically. A combination of a priori and open coding was used to support inductive analysis. Eight themes were identified: challenges of incarceration, support systems, overcoming patterns, turning points, juvenile justice staff, advice to other young offenders, experiences of incarceration, and graduation success. Recommendations include enhanced training for staff members in schools and facilities and conducting a follow-up study to assess the continued success of young adults in this study. Positive social change contributions include identifying ways incarcerated juveniles can be reengaged in schooling and continuing education to decrease recidivism and enhance productive citizenship.

Over the years, a number of quantitative studies have attempted and failed to capture the positive psychological growth that comes from participation in outdoor adventure education, as well as the precise source of that growth. The logical conclusion from this is either that such growth is an illusion, such growth can’t be measured, or that the studies were in some way methodologically flawed. The present study takes an intensive ethnographic/autoethnographic approach to study the progress of six teenage boys in a bifurcated eight-week summer camp program evenly divided between adventure travel and apprenticeship as staff to younger children. The study set out to find out what antecedent factors predicated the development of resilience and self-efficacy, with a particular focus on the culture of the camp as a whole and the expectations placed on staff conduct; the developmental trajectory of the individual; the individual’s past experience with adversity; the individual’s self-concept both at a given point of observation and over time; the group dynamic of the CIT cohort; the mentorship of older staff; the formal training as a counselor; and the expectations of a caregiver role. In addition to clear measures of self-efficacy, and, in some cases, resilience, the study also revealed generalized positive psychological growth as a result of a healthy, value-setting group dynamic. Of particular interest was the development of the study itself, with its reflective interviews and focus groups focused on positive adaptation to challenges, as an additional antecedent factor. / acase@tulane.edu

Grounded in Bronfenbrenner's (1979) Ecological Systems Theory and through the application of cross-classified random effects models, the goal of this study was to examine simultaneously neighborhood and school influences on adolescent academic achievement and risk of obesity, as well as the moderating effects of schools on these outcomes. By examining concurrently neighborhood and school influences on achievement and risk of obesity, this study aimed to fill gaps in the social determinants literature. For example, it is unclear if where an adolescent lives or where she/he attends school has a stronger influence on academic achievement. We also do not know if schools can moderate neighborhood influences on adolescent achievement, nor do we know much about the relationships among schools, neighborhoods, and adolescent risk for obesity. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement study, four research questions were investigated: (1) To what extent are neighborhood influences on U.S. middle and high school students' academic achievement moderated by school environments? (2) What are the relative influences of neighborhood and school environments on U.S. middle and high school students' academic achievement? (3) To what extent are neighborhood influences on U.S. middle and high school students' risk of obesity moderated by school environments? (4) What are the relative influences of neighborhood and school environments on U.S. middle and high school students' risk of obesity? Findings did not suggest a moderating relationship between neighborhood and school factors examined in this study. In terms of relative relationships with academic achievement, three neighborhood factors (affluence, racial composition, and urbanicity) and two school characteristics (student body racial composition and school socioeconomic status) appeared to have the strongest relationships with adolescent achievement after controlling for individual and other neighborhood and school characteristics. For adolescent risk of obesity, neighborhood affluence and racial composition had statistically significant unique associations, whereas no school factors evidenced statistically significantly relationships with risk of obesity after controlling for other factors. Results of the study were interpreted in terms of contributions to the social determinants literature, as well as recommendations for the improvement of future large-scale surveys.